Mr. Saibal Dasgupta, is an officer belonging to the Indian Forest Service of 1984 batch, borne in Madhya Pradesh Cadre. Besides Master’s degrees in Botany and Forestry, he has also undertaken a Course in Forest Policy from Yale University, USA. He has worked extensively on forestry related issues in the State as well as in Government of India in various capacities and has experience in handling field related problems pertaining to forest and wildlife management, plantation, community forest management, training and extension related works and projects related to Human Resource Development with special emphasis on designing training modules and training need analysis, monitoring and evaluation and use of GPS and GIS in forest management funded by national and international agencies like EU, World Bank & FAO.
As Director General, Forest Survey of India, Dehradun he oversaw works pertaining to national level forest resource assessment like Forest Cover Mapping and Inventory of Forests & Tree Outside forests. He was also involved in coordinating a number of National & Internationally funded Projects at FSI. He has been involved in submission of India Country Report for Forest Resource Assessment 2005 &partly for Forest Resource Assessment 2010.
As Addl. Director General (FC) in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, he was responsible for overseeing the works pertaining to Forest Conservation, Research & Training, Survey & Utilization, Externally Aided Projects & Forest Protection at the National Level. Besides the above, he also headed/Chaired a number of Committees at the National level.
His area of specialization is Project Formulation, Participatory Approaches to Development, Human Resources Development, Monitoring and Evaluation, Use of Remote Sensing and GIS for Natural Resource Management including wildlife Management.
He has published four Books/Manuals on Community Forest Management, Training Manual on Inventory of Trees outside forest, Systematic Botany for Foresters and a report an Assessment of Status of Sustainability of Forest Resource of India. He has also edited/co-authored 5 books on forestry related issues and a number of technical bulletins and papers. In addition, he has 33 papers published in refereed national and international Journals.
He is also a member of International Union of Forest Research Organization (IUFRO) and also functioned as member of Board of Management, FRI, Deemed University, Dehradun. He has functioned as the National Correspondent for India and Member Advisory Group, FAO for Global Forest Resource Assessment 2020.
Post retirement, he has joined the National Green Tribunal as an Expert Member with effect from 1st November, 2019 and his tenure ended on 31st October, 2022.